Top leader of United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) Sashadhar Choudhury has said Pakistan's ISI trained the insurgent outfit while individuals from various Bangladeshi agencies gave logistics support.
"Pakistan's ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] trained Ulfa. In 1991, I was part of the first batch of Ulfa members to go to Pakistan for training in small arms including main battle rifles," Choudhury said in an interview to The Times of India published on Tuesday.
Choudhury, who joined the Ulfa in 1985, is now a member of the Ulfa delegation preparing to hold peace talks with the Indian government.
"I had a Bangladeshi national ID card issued by its army, and passports of several countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Fiji and South Africa," he said.
But when contacted, officials of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) rejected the statement, saying the army did not issue any ID card to anybody as it does not have the authority to do so.
"Army only provided some technical support to a government project on national ID card. That doesn't mean that army men had issued the ID cards," an ISPR official told The Daily Star yesterday on condition of anonymity.
The Times of India quoted Sashadhar as saying that he had lived in Bangladesh with his wife and daughter for 12 years until his arrest in November 2009.
"I lived in Bangladesh as Rafiqul Islam. My wife Runima, a member of Ulfa's cultural wing, assumed the name Sabina Yasmin," said Choudhury, who lived in a rented house at Uttara Sector-3.
Choudhury and Runima got married in Bangladesh in 1997 and settled down. Their 10-year-old daughter studied in Dhaka's International Turkish Hope School.
Ulfa leaders, their wives and children assumed Islamic names and lived a life of disguise in Bangladesh until Sheikh Hasina-led government came to power in 2009, he added.
In 1992, he was chosen as Ulfa's "foreign secretary" by the outfit's general council.
"Soon after joining, we had trained with the Nagas of the undivided NSCN. In 1988, we were the second batch of Ulfa who went over to Kachin in Myanmar. We fought along with Kachin Independence Army (KIA) for two years and shared their guns," he said.
Later, as Ulfa's financial resources improved, it began buying weapons.
The Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) is a Naga nationalist militant group operating in northeast India. Its aim is to establish a Christian socialist state in the areas inhabited by the Naga people in northeast India and Burma.
The Ulfa leader said, "The Chinese sold Ulfa weapons, but indirectly. They are not fools to train insurgents or get directly involved."
The worst ordeal, Choudhury said, was during Operation Goldenbird in 1995, a joint anti-insurgent military offensive launched by India and Myanmar.
"I was the golden bird they were looking for. For nine days, I fought without food or water in the jungles of Myanmar's Chin which was an unknown terrain for us," he claimed.
But the Indian Army managed to capture him in northeastern Indian state of Mizoram.
"But they did not know they had caught Shashadhar Choudhury. For two-and-a-half months in army custody, they only asked me where is Shasha? But I managed to protect myself saying I was Sailen Choudhury," he said. Sailen Choudhury was an Ulfa member who had been killed in that operation.
Later, he was taken away from army custody, produced in a court and sent to jail. He struck a deal with then Assam government by offering to build bridges between Ulfa and the government in return for his release. But, soon after he was released, he obtained bail and fled to Bhutan. "It was for survival," he said.
Ulfa received the worst blow during Royal Bhutan Army's operation "All clear" in 2003. A large number of its members were killed or went missing.
"After this, we shifted our headquarters to Bangladesh and then to Myanmar," he said.
PARESH BARUA REFUTES MEDIA REPORTS
Meanwhile, Paresh Barua, Ulfa commander-in-chief, described as "not true" media reports quoting Ulfa Chairman Arabindo Rajkhowa as saying that his outfit procured weapons with the help of the Pakistan government and ISI.
"This allegation is completely baseless and such reports have been made with a purpose. It is nothing new that such malicious publicity is given to Ulfa but this time Chairman Rajkhowa has been quoted," Baruah said in an email to the media.
"We challenge those making such claims to prove with direct or indirect evidence that we took weapons and other help from Pakistani fundamentalists or ISI," he said.
Source : The Daily Star
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